Pages

"[My relationships were] like I was in these movies where the script was only half-written. When I’d get to the end of this half-script, the other actors wanted me to ad lib. But I had never gotten the hang of that. That’s why these movies were always box-office failures. Six of them in the past twenty years. I always blew the lines." ~ from my horrible first novel "Learn How To Pretend." (unpublished)(obviously)

Friday, February 27, 2009

I've always been a big fan of the word Official. But like in the "Official Secret Decoder Ring" sense.

But today's news is Official, but not in that sense. Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from the director of the Creative Writing Program at UNM to let me know that I'd been accepted into the MFA (Masters of Fine Arts)for next fall. This was a huge relief for me as I'd been sweating it out.

The next step is to somehow get awarded a teaching assistantship, which means that A.) I won't pay any tuition, B.) I'll get paid about $20K for two semesters, and C.) I'll have health care again. In other words, I'll get paid to get a Masters degree. Of course I will have to teach English to a bunch of college freshmen, but hell. I can do that.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Since nobody ever reads this thing anyway, I can give out this unofficial news:

I've received unofficial word that i have been accepted into the Creative Writing MFA program at UNM for the fall of 2009. I still have to get the official notice from graduate admissions, but that's the word on the street.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

The lights on the bus are flashing in time with my music. Corpus Christi Bay. Cool.

I sent the above message from my phone this morning. I was listening to Robert Earl Keen's "Corpus Christi Bay" on the iPod, and the emergency flashers on the bus I was waiting for were flashing in perfect time. I kept expecting it to drift off, like how sometimes your turn-signal and the one of the car in front of you will be in sync, but after a couple of clicks, nada. But it did it through the whole song...

Christ, I need some sleep. Only three weeks into the final semester, and I'm fried crispy.

It takes a lot of effort to go to my classes each day. I feel like just giving up.

I heard from one of my professor's today that they are in the process of reading MFA program applications. He felt certain I was in the very top group, but the question had to do with how many students they were going to admit. Usually it is 3-5.

I heard from another professor a few weeks ago that there were questions about the program in general for next year due to some internal struggles. Jesus, what a bunch of fucking babies! Grow up.

I got accepted at Chatham Colege in Pittsburgh, and I'd love to go, but we just can't afford to leave NM right now.

1 Scepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be sceptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.

2 Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues.

3 It’s not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie. If possible, tease people who take themselves and their knowledge too seriously.

4 Wear your best for your execution and stand dignified. Your last recourse against randomness is how you act — if you can’t control outcomes, you can control the elegance of your behaviour. You will always have the last word.

5 Don’t disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long time. We don’t understand their logic. Don’t pollute the planet. Leave it the way we found it, regardless of scientific ‘evidence’.

6 Learn to fail with pride — and do so fast and cleanly. Maximise trial and error — by mastering the error part.

7 Avoid losers. If you hear someone use the words ‘impossible’, ‘never’, ‘too difficult’ too often, drop him or her from your social network. Never take ‘no’ for an answer (conversely, take most ‘yeses’ as ‘most probably’).

8 Don’t read newspapers for the news (just for the gossip and, of course, profiles of authors). The best filter to know if the news matters is if you hear it in cafes, restaurants... or (again) parties.

9 Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet.

10 Answer e-mails from junior people before more senior ones. Junior people have further to go and tend to remember who slighted them.